title: A novel zinc bis(thiosemicarbazone) complex for live cell imaging.
abstract: Fluorescent zinc complexes have recently attracted a lot of interest owing to their vast applications in cellular imaging. We report the synthesis as well as physical, chemical and biological studies of a novel zinc glyoxalbis(4-methyl-4-phenyl-3-thiosemicarbazone), [Zn(GTSC)]₃, complex. As compared with the well-studied zinc biacetylbis(4-methyl-3-thiosemicarbazone), Zn(ATSM), complex, which was used as a reference, [Zn(GTSC)]₃ had 2.5-fold higher fluorescence. When cellular fluorescence was measured using flow cytometry, we observed that [Zn(GTSC)]₃ had 3.4-fold to 12-fold higher fluorescence than Zn(ATSM) in various cell lines (n = 9) of different tissue origin. Confocal fluorescence microscopy results showed that [Zn(GTSC)]₃ appeared to have a nuclear localization within 30 min of addition to MCF7 cells. Moreover, [Zn(GTSC)]₃ showed minimal cytotoxicity compared with Zn(ATSM), suggesting that [Zn(GTSC)]₃ may be less deleterious to cells when used as an imaging agent. Our data suggest that the novel [Zn(GTSC)]₃ complex can potentially serve as a biocompatible fluorescent imaging agent for live cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.
authors.forename: Disha
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dayal
authors.forename: Duraippandi
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Palanimuthu
authors.forename: Sridevi Vijay
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Shinde
authors.forename: Kumaravel
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Somasundaram
authors.forename: Ashoka G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Samuelson
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D005453:Fluorescence; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000633:toxicity; D006801:Humans; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D008958:Models, Molecular; D057054:Molecular Imaging; D015394:Molecular Structure; D009942:Organometallic Compounds / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000633:toxicity; D013237:Stereoisomerism; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D013882:Thiosemicarbazones / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000633:toxicity; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D015032:Zinc / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D009942:Organometallic Compounds; D013882:Thiosemicarbazones; D015032:Zinc